Licensing Policy and Procedure Handbook Revision October 2011

House Bill 2370 (82nd Legislature) requires DFPS to notify persons who apply for an independent foster home license about certain background check requirements. Licensing policies and procedures are being revised to outline that Licensing staff must inform applicants for an independent foster home license about background check requirements, including informing them about the criminal convictions that:

• preclude an applicant from getting a license to operate an independent foster home; and

• DFPS may consider when evaluating a person's application for a license to operate an independent foster home.

The January 2011 revision of the handbook contained an error that is corrected with this release. The items below were not updated at that time. The revision dates for these items is January 2011, reflecting the actual date the policy went into effect.

4427 Documenting Random-Sampling Inspections

4427.1 Documenting Attempted Inspections

To accommodate this correction, policy that has been located at number 4427 is moved. With this revision policy regarding Certifying the Licensing Status of a Child-Placing Agency for International Adoptions is now contained in a subheading under the item below:

4420 Monitoring Child-Placing Agencies

People First Language

HB 1481 (82nd Legislature) requires HHSC agencies to change language in policies so that terms such as “disabled” are not used. This policy section replaces a section that reads “is at least 55 years old or is permanently disabled” with “is at least 55 years old or has a permanent physical or medical disability.” See: